revolver cartridges and MacGyver's Lock Test
The test involving revolver cartridges asked whether a particular television lock-opening scene could work as depicted. The scene came from the MacGyver episode "The Wish Child" and involved powder from six cartridges. The tested version did not open the lock. A later attempt did break it, but that attempt used a much larger quantity of powder and a different ignition method. Those outcomes belong to different versions of the challenge. Keeping them apart allows the answer to remain clear even though the testing ended with a broken lock.
Before examining the television trick piece by piece, the Build Team tried simply shooting a lock. They used a locked steel door and a .38 caliber revolver. Their first shot damaged the lock enough for the door to open. That result was part of the testing sequence, but it was not the cartridge-based trick described in the television scene. An opened door can be the same broad endpoint while the proposed method differs. Here, the distinction matters because the question concerned the method shown in a particular scene, rather than any possible way to damage a lock.
The team then examined preliminary actions from the scene. They tried removing the slugs from the rounds with their fingers and setting off the primers by striking them with revolver butts. Both actions were reported as impossible in those attempts. That gave the test difficulties before the central lock-opening result was even considered. The account does not describe those obstacles as mere delays that the original scene readily overcame. Instead, it records separate unsuccessful actions. For the revolver cartridges question, those details help explain why an eventual explosion alone would not settle whether the depicted sequence worked.
The six .38 rounds supplied a reported total of 30 grains of smokeless powder. The team continued with an adapted test and made changes, including replacing smokeless powder with black powder. They eventually achieved ignition in that altered arrangement, yet the lock stayed intact. This is the key middle result: getting the powder to ignite and getting the lock to open were separate outcomes. The former occurred after adjustments; the latter did not occur in that attempt. The description provides both observations, so there is no need to treat ignition itself as completion of the lock-opening challenge.
A subsequent attempt used 600 grains of black powder, described as equivalent to 120 rounds, together with an electric igniter. This time the explosion broke the lock apart. The comparison with the earlier revolver cartridges test is central to the answer. The amount had changed substantially, and ignition was no longer being achieved in the same manner as the adapted earlier attempt. The broken lock therefore establishes an outcome under the later conditions. It does not carry that outcome backward into the scene's smaller quantity or its original sequence of actions.
The team also went on to demolish the entire door with C-4. That final event is another distinct endpoint, rather than an additional success for the initial stunt. A damaged lock sufficient to open a door, an ignited charge leaving a lock intact, a later explosion breaking a lock, and demolition of the entire door are all present in the account. They should not be compressed into a single statement that the trick worked. The interest of the test lies in those distinctions, especially when its results are compared with the particular television claim that prompted it.
A useful way to read the revolver cartridges result is to preserve the question at every stage. Was the team observing the method from the scene, a modified attempt, or a different approach entirely? The first shot belongs to the shooting approach. The unsuccessful preliminary actions belong to the scene's proposed sequence. The ignition with an intact lock belongs to the adjusted powder attempt. The broken lock belongs to the larger electrically ignited charge. These descriptions make the progression intelligible without adding claims about unreported pressures, material properties, or what other locks might withstand.
The answer to the revolver cartridges challenge is consequently narrower than the most dramatic image from the test. The scene's trick did not open the tested lock, while a later, larger and differently ignited charge did break it. That is enough to explain the outcome without turning the account into instructions or a promise about another door. The television scenario, the unsuccessful stages, and the final substitutions all retain their own place. Read that way, the test offers a clear result and a careful explanation: the eventual damage came after changes that mattered to the very question being asked.